This painting from Attar’s Mantiq al‑Tair illustrates the parable told by the hoopoe in which a man’s pride in his exceptionally long beard causes him to drown in the sea—teaching that pride in worldly attachments will eventually bring one to ruin. The prominent, but seemingly unrelated, image of a man gathering firewood in the foreground has been interpreted as a visual pun embodying mystical significance. Some scholars see it as a metaphor for a breathing meditation practice followed by Sufi adherents that produces a sound akin to sawing wood.